


Unhappy Reunion

by KitsJay



Category: The Good Doctor (TV 2017)
Genre: Ableist Language, Gen, Minor Violence, Past Child Abuse
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-07
Updated: 2018-07-01
Packaged: 2019-05-19 05:44:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14867756
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KitsJay/pseuds/KitsJay
Summary: When a patient's husband attacks Dr. Shaun Murphy unprovoked, Dr. Melendez finds himself tracking down his wayward resident to get to the bottom of things. As he uncovers secrets about Shaun's life prior to joining St. Bonaventure Hospital, he finds out things aren't as simple as he thought they were. Park's cop instincts tell him there is more to the story with the patient than meets the eye, Claire and Jared are concerned, and Morgan tries to wrangle the situation to her benefit.Updates on Saturdays.





	1. Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope to update every Saturday. I already have six chapters written, so as long as everyone likes it, I'll keep working on it and posting. Some notes: I am not autistic and Shaun's characterization is hard for me to pin down, so if anything is offensive or inaccurate, please let me know so that I can change it and get better. I am also not in any kind of medical field, so all medical information is cobbled together from Google. If anyone sees any major flaws, again, please let me know. Finally, the laws are accurate for my state, but may be different in California. Call it creative license? Hope you enjoy, and please leave kudos or, even better, a comment if you enjoy or have constructive criticism to share. Thanks!
> 
> TW for this chapter: A slur/ableist language

“What have we got?”

Dr. Neil Melendez cast a quick glance over his motley group of residents. Jared was frowning at the tablet with the patient information, Park’s face looked as placid as ever, and Claire and Morgan were pretending the other didn’t exist, which was at least better than them being at each other’s throats. 

“The patient is a 48-year-old female presenting with acute abdominal pain,” Morgan recited before taking a breath to continue.

Melendez held up his hand. “Wait. Where’s Murphy?”

Jared and Claire gave each other a quick side glance that Melendez did not miss, and Morgan looked a little smug. Park just shrugged.

“Late again?” Melendez said with a warning in his voice. “Looks like someone’s got scut work for the next week.”

“I’m sure he has a good reason – " Claire began, but Morgan cut her off.

“A good reason for showing up late, _again_ , to work?” Morgan said. “This is the third time in a month.”

“Murphy is capable of defending himself, when he is actually _present_ ,” Melendez said to Claire, then turned to Morgan and added, “I don’t need your help reminding me when Shaun Murphy is late, Reznick. In the meantime, let’s focus less on our chronically tardy member and more on the patient, who actually does need our help."

Claire looked suitably chastened, though Morgan had a petulant look on her face like a child who had just been told no by her favorite teacher. Melendez tried not to shudder at that visual. He was a teaching doctor, not a pre-school teacher. At least, most days.

He began striding down the hall to the patient’s room, gesturing for his gaggle of residents to follow. 

“Park,” said Melendez. “What did the patient say at intake?”

If Melendez hadn’t had his back to the residents, he would have noticed the strange, tight look that passed over Park’s face. His voice was neutral when he replied, “Patient says she fell and hit her stomach on the corner of a kitchen table yesterday evening. She has bruising and her abdomen was tender, according to the ER doctor who did her intake exam.”

Melendez frowned and double-checked the chart. “Nguyen,” he said to himself, reminding himself to check in with her when he had a chance. There was something off about the notes, though Melendez couldn’t pinpoint what. Just something off about this whole thing. His eyes slipped to the patient’s name and his eyebrows quirked up in interest. Not an uncommon name, but an interesting coincidence. “Murphy?”

“Here!” 

Melendez whirled around to see his wayward resident joining the group in a half-run, face still flushed and hair sweaty from his impromptu jog. “So nice of you to join us,” he said dryly, before remembering the sarcasm would probably go unnoticed. “You’ll have to catch up on the way. For now, shut up and listen.”

Murphy bobbed his head, seemingly unaffected by the harsh order, eyes roaming the institutional green walls near the nurses’ station. Jared shoved a tablet into his hands and Claire shot him a smile. 

Shortly they were standing in the doorway of the room. A woman with faded brown hair, now liberally shot with gray, lie in the bed. Her face was drawn and haggard, more so than her age would suggest, and creased with pain. Her eyes, when they fluttered open, were still a brilliant blue, and she managed a weak smile as Dr. Melendez strode in. 

A man, presumably the woman’s husband, sat in a chair near the door, hands clenched between his knees and his head bowed. His hair was thinning on top, and his bulky build suggested manual labor, though retirement and age had wasted away some of the muscle and left only the outline of broad shoulders and a round gut hanging over his waistline. Risk for heart attack, Melendez thought absently before turning his attention to his patient.

“I’m Dr. Melendez,” he introduced himself, then made a sweeping gesture behind him. “These are surgical residents, they’ll be assisting – “

He did not get much further before the man looked up at him and his team, and his face flushed a florid red. “You!” he shouted at the group, and Melendez looked at him in alarm.

Park shifted his feet, a wary look in his eyes, and the others looked confused. Murphy's eyes darted between the man's face and the wall behind the man’s ear, his face betraying his anxiety, and his hands clenching and unclenching around the tablet Jared had handed him to review.

“You killed him! You killed my son!” 

The man lunged at Murphy, managing to grab his shoulders and slam him against the wall before anyone could react. A fist slammed into Murphy’s unguarded face before rearing back again. Park recovered the fastest, stepping forward to grab the man’s arm before he could take another swing at Murphy. Jared jumped in, helping him restrain the man and pulling him backwards. Melendez was already at the call button. 

“Send security to room 504, NOW,” Melendez shouted, not bothering to wait for a reply before he crossed the floor to where the man was still pulling against Jared and Park’s restraining arms. Claire and Morgan stood by the woman’s bedside, alternating between watching the scene with wide eyes and trying to comfort the woman in the hospital bed.

Murphy braced himself against the wall and his eyes locked, briefly, with Melendez’s before he bolted out the door. 

“Fuck,” Melendez swore. He whirled on the man. “I don’t know what the hell that was, but – "

“He killed my son!” the man screamed at Melendez. “That retarded bastard killed my son! He’d be alive right now if it weren’t for –"

“HEY!” Melendez shouted. “This is a hospital! Your wife is here because she needs surgery! I don’t know what your problem with Murphy is, but –"

Security came in just then and took charge of the man, effectively cutting Melendez off. Melendez backed up to let the police do their jobs, his mind already ticking away. A common name, but clearly they knew each other. Aoki, Andrews, and even Glassman had said some things, dropped some hints about Murphy’s background, but when Melendez had questioned Jess about it, she had clammed up and told him that it was Murphy’s story to tell. Melendez had backed off, respecting Jess’s commitment to privacy, and he had never pried into it again, but suspicions were mounting in the back of his mind. 

As the man cursed at the police hauling him to the door, Melendez took a moment to regroup. Park had a grim look on his face, like this had just confirmed something he already knew, Jared and Morgan wore almost identical expressions of alarm, and Claire looked concerned, though about Murphy or the patient currently crying softly in the bed, Melendez couldn’t tell. 

Dr. Lim poked her head around the corner, clearly summoned by the fracas. “Everything okay?” she said, casting a quick look over the group to check for injuries. 

Melendez jerked his thumb at the residents. “Can you babysit for a minute? I need to… do some damage control. Police may need to take statements from them.”

“Sure,” Dr. Lim agreed readily. 

As he turned away, he heard low mutters of discontent at the term “babysitting”. The incident might have freaked them out a bit, but they would be fine. He was more worried about his fifth resident right now. 

If he were a brilliant, autistic surgical resident who had just reunited, unhappily, with a family member, where the hell would he go?

With a sigh, Melendez headed toward Dr. Glassman’s office.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because this one is so short, you get a bonus chapter. As always, constructive criticism is always appreciated!

“Dr. Melendez, what can I do for you?” Dr. Glassman asked, leaning back in his chair and drawing his attention away from the thick folder in front of him. 

Melendez lingered in the doorway, unsure if this was the best call. The very public rift between Dr. Glassman and Murphy had quickly become the number one gossip throughout the hospital when it had happened, and while he had heard that there was some progress made in reconciliation between them, he knew better than to trust everything the gossip grapevine yielded. Still, no one knew Murphy better than the man in front of him.

Making the decision to be cautious about what he shared, Melendez stepped forward. “Did you hear about the altercation just now?”

“News to me,” Dr. Glassman said with a frown. “What happened?”

“A patient’s husband was belligerent and we called security to escort him out,” Melendez said. “I’ll write up an incident report later. Murphy was… upset by the incident and bolted. I’m trying to track him down. Any ideas?”

Dr. Glassman half-stood as soon as he heard Shaun was upset, before a quick, pained grimace twisted his face and he sat back down heavily. He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. “I’m afraid I don’t know much about Shaun these days.”

Ah, Melendez thought. The reconciliation wasn’t as concrete as the gossip mill had made it out to be. He was briefly glad of the decision to keep the details, and his speculation, to himself for now. If Dr. Glassman had known the extent of the incident, there was no doubt he would be pulling out all the stops to find Shaun, whether he wanted to be found or not, and Melendez could already guess at what that would have done for their newly healing relationship. As much as he tried not getting involved in his residents’ personal lives, they seemed to inexplicably draw him in. Still, he liked Dr. Glassman. The man was fair and reasonable, and he had lent a sympathetic ear to Melendez more than once, offering advice or criticism as needed. He also was one of the few people who was both willing and able to give him a kick in the ass when he needed it, like his advice to Melendez regarding the couple who refused to let Murphy operate on their kid. At the time, it hadn’t felt like helpful advice, but he was able to grudgingly admit that Dr. Glassman wasn’t wrong, even though at the time it had made him feel like he was an unruly kid throwing a temper tantrum. As much as he hated getting tangled up in the webs his residents wove, he had no desire to fracture Dr. Glassman and Murphy’s relationship if he could help it.

Dr. Glassman interrupted his chain of thought. “Have you alerted security?”

“About the husband,” Melendez frowned, “or Murphy?”

“Both.”

“The husband was in their custody last I saw. As for Murphy, I’d prefer to knock on a few doors before calling in the cavalry.”

Dr. Glassman nodded, turning his attention back to the folder with a force of will. Melendez did not have to guess at how much the man wanted to join the search and find his lost duckling. “Let me know if you find him, and get that incident report to me as soon as you can.”

Melendez nodded in thanks and turned to go when Dr. Glassman spoke again. 

“Try the janitor’s closet on the third floor.”

He ignored Melendez’s bemused expression and waved him away. 

The janitor’s closet on the third floor. That was a starting place, at least.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neil finds Shaun and they have a heart-to-heart.

Murphy was not in the janitor’s closet on the third floor. Or the first, or the second. He was also not in the basement, the recovery area, or the doctors’ lounges on the third and fourth floor. Melendez was about to begin barging into the men’s restrooms when a nurse sidled up to him. He glanced at her, recognizing Kathy, who seemed to have a soft spot for Murphy. She also had a soft spot for Melendez. 

“You’re looking for Dr. Murphy?” Kathy asked with a sympathetic smile, and Melendez didn’t question how she knew. Some doctors treated nurses like second-class citizens, while the smart ones figured out quickly that nurses knew everything about the hospital; the real power wasn’t to be found in the boardroom or in the president’s office, but sitting behind a computer screen, updating patient charts, and scolding residents for having open drink containers around the nurse’s station. Melendez was not above bribing the nurses with the good coffee to stay on their good side, and times like this, it paid off.

“You know where he is?” 

“You didn’t hear this from me, but I would try the on-call room on five.” 

“The one that had to have everything replaced because the idiot resident somehow flooded it?” Melendez asked. Said resident had been one of Dr. Nguyen’s, who had not been happy at the ensuing ribbing from the other attendants, even though the teasing had been mostly sympathetic. Said resident’s assignment of scut work after the incident still remained a record for the hospital, and served as a cautionary tale to new residents.

“That’s the one. It hasn’t been re-opened yet. Nice place to go if you want some quiet.” Kathy looked up from her patient records. “He’s not in trouble, is he?”

“No,” Melendez said firmly. “At least, not right now.”

Kathy nodded and left to make her appointed rounds. 

Neil took the stairs, deciding it would be quicker than navigating the packed elevators and crowded hallways, and turned left out of the stairway doors. The on-call room was placed at the very end of the hallway – no doubt the reason why a few months ago no one had caught the water seeping out from under the door until it was too late. 

The door was pulled nearly all the way shut, and Dr. Melendez pushed it open as quietly as he could, hoping he wasn’t disturbing any cranky doctors trying to catch a few minutes of sleep in the middle of a 36-hour shift. There were no ensuing shouts, so he stepped cautiously into the room. Murphy was crouched in the corner where a bunk bed used to be, holding a plastic toy in his hands.

What was unexpected, however, was the man sitting cross-legged next to him, talking in a quiet voice and carefully not touching him.

“Park?” Melendez said, his eyebrows lifted in surprise at the unlikely scene. 

Murphy made no movement to acknowledge him. Park stood gracefully, face not betraying why he was there or what he had been saying to Murphy. Whatever it was, Murphy looked a hell of a lot calmer than Melendez had feared he would find when Kathy first gave him the tip-off. “I gave the police my statement and Dr. Lim said it was alright to see if I could locate Murphy. The police will need to talk to him, too.”

There was something guarded in his expression, and Melendez was sure there was more to the story, but right now he didn’t have time to explore it. “Get back to Dr. Lim,” he said. “I’ve got this.”

“Sure,” Park said, but hesitated at the door before leaving. 

“We’ll talk later,” Melendez promised, divining the reason behind Park’s hesitation. Park nodded and left the room, leaving Melendez staring, hands on hips, at Murphy rocking on the floor.

Sighing, he crouched down in front of Murphy and cautiously reached a hand forward. Murphy flinched back, head hitting the wall behind him with a dull noise. Melendez instantly retreated, hands in the air, palms out.

He apologized in a low voice, “Look, I know you don’t like being touched, but you’ve got a hell of a shiner, and I need to see if there’s any damage.”

Murphy appeared not to hear him, resuming his rocking and twisting the toy – a scalpel? – between his hands.

“Murphy,” Melendez tried again. “I need to see, okay?”

There was a brief pause in the rocking, then a minute nod. Melendez took it as a good sign and reached forward again, confining his contact to one hand on Murphy’s chin to gently tilt his head up and to the side. Ideally, he would have X-rays done, but while Park seemed to have done a better than expected job of calming Murphy down, Melendez doubted Murphy would consent to anything more than a cursory examination right now.

He released Murphy's chin and backed off. “Looks like some bad bruising, but I don’t think there’s an orbital fracture. Any numbness, double-vision, or restricted sight?”

“An orbital rim fracture can be a zygomatic fracture or a frontal bone fracture. Recommended diagnosis is X-rays and possible CT scan to determine damage to the eye.”

“Right,” Melendez said, accepting the regurgitated textbook material in stride. “Is that a no?”

Murphy blinked. “No.”

“Good.”

There was a moment of silence, and Melendez wondered if Murphy felt as acutely awkward as he did right now. The little toy scalpel’s quick rotations seemed to indicate the answer to that was a resounding yes. Still, he couldn’t exactly drag Murphy to Dr. Glassman’s office and dump him there, however tempting the idea might be. 

He scrubbed a hand through his hair, weighing his options. There weren’t any, really. Dr. Glassman was bound to overreact, and his and Murphy’s relationship hadn’t been repaired to the point that it could recover from another strain. Jared and Claire would be able, and willing, to help, but then again, they may be too close to the situation. Besides, as Murphy’s supervisor, he needed to get to the bottom of this anyway. Melendez wasn’t anyone's choice of confidant, but right now, it didn’t look like Murphy or he had any other choice.

“Wanna tell me what that was about?”

“No.”

“Let me reword that: tell me what that was about.”

There was a pause, long enough that Melendez thought he wasn’t going to answer, then Murphy said in a flat, rehearsed voice: “I didn’t kill him. He fell. It was an accident. I could not save him.”

“Okay,” Melendez said softly. He shifted so that he was leaning against the wall to one side of Murphy, one arm slung over his bent knee, staring straight ahead instead of at the man beside him. “Who was he?”

Murphy didn’t answer, but his hands clenched around the toy scalpel, and Melendez suddenly had a flash of insight as to where that toy scalpel might have come from and why Murphy wouldn't take his eyes off of it. Well, that explained some things. It also cleared up at least one question: whatever had happened, it hadn’t been while Murphy was here. Childhood accident? He remembered something Jess had said, something about why Murphy wanted to be a surgeon.

“Murphy.” He hesitated, then revised: “Shaun. Were those your parents?”

God, he hoped not. He wanted to believe that they were distant relations, or an aunt and uncle maybe, who lost their son to a childhood misadventure and for some reason blamed Shaun. The way the man had lunged at Murphy, the look of murder in his eyes right as his fist connected – it wasn’t just the violence of it, but the way Murphy had reacted, frozen, almost resigned, like this was something that had happened before. The suspicion in his mind bloomed as the room stayed silent. 

Murphy’s eyes jumped around the room, landing for a few seconds on Melendez’s face before sliding back to the scalpel. Melendez felt a sudden need for a strong drink. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

“He killed my rabbit,” Murphy said apropos of nothing, and Melendez sat up straighter at the volunteered statement. “He went to heaven. My brother said it wouldn’t happen again, so we went away. There was no TV.” 

There was a pause, and Melendez struggled to parse the non-sequiturs. Or maybe they weren’t. There was a thread in there that connected them, a picture that Melendez could just barely make out, held together by conjecture and the memories so clearly behind Shaun's words.

Shaun spoke again, quieter. “He was not a good man.”

“No,” Melendez sighed. “It doesn't sound like he is.”

And with that, suddenly and with crystal clarity, Melendez saw a window into Murphy’s life. Sometimes it was easier to pretend that residents came to him fully formed, grown in a test tube in medical school with no messy backgrounds or pasts to complicate things. He had residents before whom he had harbored suspicions about: the beautiful blonde with an easy smile and a sharp mind, who flinched almost imperceptibly whenever one of the male doctors touched her; the quiet young man who would make a decent, if never exceptional, surgeon, whose eyes had something dark in them when he thought no one was looking. It was easier to mind his own business and stay uninvolved in his residents' lives, better than getting involved and finding out there was nothing he could do to make anything better. But he had never had one like Murphy. A few months ago, Murphy had been a weird guy sitting on a bench in the rain, explaining why he thought an eight-year-old boy needed an echocardiogram. Melendez didn't like knowing that he was also a kid misunderstood by almost everyone, hurt and disavowed by a father who had killed his pet – and, Melendez knew with a grim certainty – Shaun’s only friend, and who had apparently watched his brother die. And right now, he was stuck in a closet of a room that still smelled faintly of mold, clutching a toy scalpel given to him by his dead brother with only Melendez for company. Melendez, who on a good day was arrogant and condescending, and on a bad day could be downright nasty. 

He wondered if it was too late to call Park back in, or to find Dr. Glassman, or even a psychiatrist. He operated on people; he knew what went on in their bodies, not their minds, and this was above his paygrade on so many levels. The understatement in Shaun’s, “He was not a good man” overwhelmed him with certainty that whatever Shaun’s father had done to him growing up, it had been as cruel and brutal as the attack that gave him the bruise currently painting his left eye.

He cast around for something to say, his eyes landing on the toy scalpel again. He nodded toward it. “Your brother gave you that.”

Murphy looked at the scalpel and nodded. His hand unclenched enough to reveal a bulky red handle and a flattened, gray plastic “blade” shaped like a butter knife. Despite how old it must have been, the toy looked brand new, like it had been lovingly taken care of for some time. 

“It was a present, but it wasn’t my birthday,” Shaun said.

“My sister gave me a shirt,” Melendez surprised himself by saying. He hadn’t told anyone but Jess this story, but he swallowed and continued. “It had a deer on it.” He gestured to where a shirt pocket would be on a polo. 

“I lost it one day.” He remembered the panic as he tore through every box after he had moved to start his residency program. He remembered the dread flooding the pit of his stomach, sitting in the middle of the shoebox apartment, all his possessions spread out around him, and crying over a damn shirt that he never wore because he didn’t want it to get messed up. He swallowed and continued, gesturing to his neck. “So I got a tattoo of some antlers, to remind me of her.”

Melendez felt strangely vulnerable, muscles bound tight as he waited for Murphy’s response.

“I would rather have the shirt,” Murphy finally said. 

Melendez huffed out a small laugh. “Yeah. Good call.”

After a brief moment of companionable silence, Melendez sighed. “Look, Murphy, as much as I think you deserve to hang out here for a while, the police need your statement, and we have patients to see.”

Murphy’s head shot up, looking at him in alarm. 

“No,” Melendez said quickly. “I’ll give your mom’s case to someone else. Ryan owes me a favor, he can take her case.”

“I want you to do it.”

Melendez’s frowned. “Okay. Why?”

“Because you’re the best. She needs the best,” Shaun said matter-of-factly. Melendez ignored the ego stroke to consider that statement. Melendez hadn’t got the impression that the drawn, frail-looking woman in the hospital bed upstairs could have done anything to hurt Shaun, but then again, abusers didn’t always look like after-school villains. Still, Melendez had the feeling that there was a lot more to this story than anyone knew.

“Okay, if that’s what you want.” He hesitated, then continued, “You know you can’t – "

“I know,” Murphy cut him off with a hint of crossness in his voice. “Surgeons are not allowed to work on family members.”

“Just checking,” Melendez said. He braced himself against the floor with one hand and hauled himself up. “Come on. You need to talk to the police, and I need to write an incident report.”

“I don’t want to talk to the police,” Murphy said mulishly.

Melendez wrestled with his patience, reminding himself to take a deep breath before answering. “And I don’t want to write an incident report, but we both have jobs to do.” Murphy seemed miffed at this, but at least he looked like he understood the necessity. Still, it didn’t hurt to offer a consolation. “Someone can go with you to give your statement, if you want. Claire, or Jared, or Park –"

Murphy finally looked up; if not at him, than in his general vicinity at least. It was the most response he had gotten from him yet. “Yes,” he interrupted. “I would like that.”

“Park?” Melendez clarified.

Murphy nodded.

Pushing down a mild curiosity at Shaun’s preference of Park over the more obvious choice of Claire, Melendez shrugged. “Okay. He’ll go with you to talk to the police. But you need to get off the floor, and we need to find Dr. Lim.”

As Murphy levered himself on the floor and folded the toy scalpel away into a cloth before shoving it deep in his pocket, Melendez felt a wave of mixed relief and frustration. He had learned more about Shaun in the past twenty minutes than he had since the man had first arrived at St. Bonaventure, but Melendez wasn’t naïve enough to believe that a few spilled confidences in a six-by-eight glorified closet came even close to scratching the surface of the mystery of Shaun Murphy.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ah, I said updates on Saturdays, but not every Saturday, did I? (No, sorry, actually the author was having some technical difficulties with her internet. Sorry!)

As Park and Shaun walked to the police, Park saying something encouraging and Shaun’s shoulders hunched self-protectively, Melendez turned and braced himself for the onslaught. As soon as the two were out of earshot, a flurry of questions bombarded him.

“Is Shaun okay?” 

“Who was that guy? How did he know Shaun?”

“Did he really kill the guy’s son? Are we going to go back to the patient?”

The last mercenary question had to be Morgan. Melendez held up his hands. 

“Murphy is fine, aside from a black eye. The man has been taken into custody and the police are going to take action as they see fit. As for who it was and how he knew Murphy: none of your business. That goes for everybody. Leave it alone,” he said with a warning glance to all of them. His eyes rested on Claire and Morgan a second longer than Jared. Both had a tendency to latch onto something and keep going, Claire out of good intentions and Morgan out of sheer stubbornness. It made them good doctors, but it also made them pains in the ass, and while Melendez only had a glimpse of the story, he knew that them pressing was just going to make things worse. Morgan especially. If she thought Murphy had killed someone on the operating table, she would pry until she got the whole story to use against him. “If I hear any of you trying to poke around this, I’ll have you suspended immediately.”

There was dead silence in reaction to his pronouncement. It was maybe unnecessarily severe, but Melendez didn’t want to take any chances.

“Glad we’re all on the same page. If any of you sees that guy again, call security right away. In the meantime, yes, we will be taking the case,” Melendez said, blank expression hiding his reservations about the prospect. “Murphy will not be joining us for this one.” 

Morgan’s eyes lit up, and Melendez felt a small, petty part of him enjoy the envious look on Morgan’s face when he added, “He’ll be working with Dr. Lim on a septal myectomy.”

No need to add that, due to the swelling in his eye, Murphy wouldn’t be doing more than just observing said surgery. 

“Any questions?”

Everyone shook their head. 

“Good. Let’s get back to our patients.”

***TGD***

“Sir, did you hear me?” the police officer asked, a note of exasperation in her voice as she took notes on a small black notepad. 

“He heard,” Park replied sharply, giving her a glance. He had explained his background when he spoke with her earlier, and aside from a few tense moments where she was cautiously wary that he was going to try to tell her how to do her job, she had relaxed and seemed to trust his judgment. She backed off and waited. He gave her a nod of thanks and leaned forward.

“Shaun? She has to ask these questions. Once you answer them, you’ll be done. Promise.”

“I don’t want to answer any more questions,” Shaun proclaimed, pushing himself out of the chair. Park didn’t touch him, but moved forward to block his way.

“No one likes answering questions from police, but she has to have your statement for the report.”

“I don’t want to press charges.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Park said evenly. “In this case, witnesses can testify even if the victim doesn’t want to pursue charges. And you have six witnesses who saw him attack you. Not to mention because it happened in a public place, Officer Flores,” he nodded to the officer, “can, and will, charge him with affray.”

“Fine,” Shaun said abruptly. 

The police officer spared a look at Park before resuming. “Did you have a relationship with this man prior to the attack?”

Shaun hesitated, his eyes going glossy in the same way they did when he was sorting out a complicated surgical problem in his head. Park prompted him, “She wants to know if you’re related to him.”

Park watched Shaun closely, looking for any signs that he was about to go into another meltdown like the one Park had found him in when he had first found him in the on-call room. Other than his rocking back and forth in small motions and his fingers restlessly flipping the hem of his lab coat back and forth, Shaun looked, if not comfortable with the situation, at least like he was not a step away from pulling at his hair or hitting his fists against his temples again. 

“Yes,” Shaun answered reluctantly. “He was my father.”

The officer paused at that, one eyebrow crooking upward. Park could see her mentally revising her assessment of the situation. He exchanged a glance with her. The situation just got much more complicated than assault bodily injury or affray. Park let the officer worry about that, while he turned over what Shaun had said in his mind. Shaun was, Park had noticed since he began, as careful with his words as with a scalpel. With anyone else, Park might have dismissed it as a careless choice of words, referring to the incident in past tense, not the relationship, but he didn’t need Claire’s empathy or Jared’s history with Shaun to know that the choice of words was deliberate.

“Sir,” Officer Flores began delicately, “In that case, this is a family violence case, and the DA will almost certainly accept charges. Are you sure you don’t wish to press charges yourself?”

“I’m sure.”

Park stayed nearby as she went through the incident, asking Shaun to clarify or elaborate as necessary, which was often. Shaun was uncomfortable with the whole situation – understandably, Park thought – and wanted to get it done as soon as possible. Park followed her general line of questioning with one ear. Establishing it wasn’t self-defense… bodily injury… He tuned it out as she continued, content that she seemed competent enough to write up a comprehensive report that would absolve Shaun of any accusations of wrong-doing before they began.

When he heard her pen click, he joined the conversation again, not surprised to see her closing her notepad and stowing it away in one of her pockets. “That should be enough for my report. We may need to get some more clarification if it moves forward and you may be called to testify.”

Shaun didn’t respond, but Park thanked her as she left. 

“You okay?” Park asked.

Standing up, Shaun ignored him and walked out of the room borrowed for the police to gather witness statements. 

“Guess that answers that question,” Park sighed to himself. Time to go find Dr. Melendez and the others, and hope that his suspicions about this entire case weren’t right. Claire accused him of being cynical, and for once, he hoped she was right.


	5. Chapter 5

After confirming with Dr. Lim that Murphy could observe her surgery, Melendez headed toward Jess’s office. As painful as it was to see her after their break-up, there was no getting around the fact that she would kill him if he didn’t let her know what was going on before she heard about it from someone else. 

He ducked his head into her office. “Got a minute?” 

“Of course,” she said, pushing away her laptop and giving him her full concentration. Her face was a picture of composed civility, professional and neutral, but Melendez saw her brush her hair back behind her ear as she turned to him. It was one of her tells, and Melendez felt a brief pang when he recognized it. Sometimes he wondered if either of them was really handling the break-up very well.

Shaking the thoughts from his head, he sat down across from her, trying not to notice the dark bags under her eyes, expertly covered with concealer, or the way her hair framed her face in soft waves. 

“Is this about the altercation this morning?” she asked pre-emptively. At his questioning look, she gave him a wry smile. “Word travels fast around here. I’ve only heard the bare bones, though.”

“I’m not sure altercation is really the word. We went into the patient’s room, and before I could even introduce myself, her husband attacked Murphy. He punched him once before Park and Kalu stepped in, then Murphy bolted. Security got there and hauled the guy off to get his statement, but it was pretty clearly unprovoked.”

“Okay,” Jess said evenly, though she looked a bit shaken. She didn’t have much interaction with Shaun, outside of their mutual friendship with Dr. Glassman and her duties at the hospital, but Melendez knew that she had rooted for him when he first started and had grown to like him over the past months. “Do we know why he attacked Shaun?”

Melendez stared at his hands clenched in his lap, wondering how much to tell her. Murphy’s personal life was his own, and Melendez respected that, but the hospital would be asking for answers, especially after the man’s loud accusations. He may be able to save everyone some trouble if he gave it to her straight now. Making a decision, he looked up. “What do you know about Shaun’s personal life before he became a surgeon?”

***TGD***

“Are you okay?” Claire exclaimed, rushing forward when she saw Shaun walking toward them. She reached out instinctively before pulling her arms back in, content to look at the red, swollen flesh around his eye with concern. Part of her was fighting to ask more questions, about who the man was and why he had accused Shaun of killing his son, but Melendez’s words echoed in her mind. The look on his face didn’t have a trace of levity, and she had no difficulty in believing that he would keep his promise if she let loose even one question. She bit her lip to keep them inside, no matter how much she wanted to know.

Jared gave a low whistle. “That’s going to leave a mark,” he added, ignoring Claire’s exasperated glare.

“I am fine,” Shaun assured them. “There are no signs of a fracture.”

“Well, that’s good,” Claire said, “but I was really wondering about, well, are you okay? You know, emotionally.”

“I am fine,” Shaun repeated. “I need Dr. Lim’s patient files. I need to review them before the surgery.”

Claire and Jared exchanged a worried glance, but tacitly agreed to back off. If Shaun didn’t want to talk to them, he wouldn’t, and there was no use pushing it. Claire looked back at him and smiled. “I’m glad you’re alright.”

“Yeah, I heard you got the septal myectomy,” Jared said with a laugh. “Lucky dog.”

“Maybe next time you can be the one who gets punched,” Shaun suggested, beaming when Claire and Jared shared a laugh at the quip. 

“Come on, let’s go find Dr. Lim. She’ll catch you up to speed.”

The trio made their way down the corridor, Jared’s tall frame and Claire’s shorter one bracketing their friend in-between.

***TGD***

Melendez shut the door to Jess’s office, letting out a breath of air. He had work to do and patients to see, but thankfully today had a been a light day. Had, he thought with heavy sarcasm, being the operative word. The sooner he could get back to work, the better. The conversation with Jess had taken longer than he thought; Jess knew that Shaun had a bad home life, and that his brother had died in an accident, but beyond that, she never asked and Dr. Glassman never volunteered. The most she knew was that Shaun and Dr. Glassman had originally met when his pet rabbit had died. The picture he had painted for her, based on what Shaun had told him and what he put together on his own, was not a pretty one. 

Jess had reassured him that everything would be kept in strict confidence, but he left feeling as if he had betrayed a trust. 

Pushing the feeling aside, he turned and nearly ran straight into Dr. Nguyen. The ER doctor was a short, thin Vietnamese woman with a broad, smiling face despite the area she worked in being one of the most stressful in the hospital. Most ER doctors burned out long before their colleagues in other, less urgent areas, but Dr. Nguyen thrived on it. She had been working in the hospital for twenty-two years and had mentored half the staff here at one point or another in that time. She wasn’t shy about pointing out mistakes, but was also quick to praise when it was deserved. Melendez liked her the first day he met her, despite – or possibly because of - her bawling him out for making a rookie mistake. 

“Elizabeth,” he greeted her with a warm smile as he fell into step with her. “Just the person I wanted to see.”

She shot him a grin. “That’s a first. Normally you run the other way when you see me coming.”

“Not true,” Melendez said. “I’ve been busy.”

“Mhmm,” she teased. “How can I help you?”

Melendez sobered as he remembered why he wanted to talk to her in the first place. He put a hand on her elbow and she paused, looking at him with concern. “I caught one of your patients. A Mrs. Katherine Murphy. She checked in early this morning –“

“With abdominal pain,” Dr. Nguyen said, all traces of a smile wiped from her face. “Yes, I remember.”

That was unusual enough to give Melendez pause. Dr. Nguyen might be protective of her patients, but the ER was fast-paced, and even she normally needed a quick look at a chart to jog her memory. 

“She stood out?” Melendez posited.

“Yes.”

“I thought there was something … off about your notes for her,” Melendez said. 

The prompt worked. “I hoped whoever caught her case could read between the lines.” She held up a hand before he could say anything. “I don’t have any proof, but… there’s something more to this. For one thing, I’ve seen a lot of weird things, but falling and hitting a kitchen table corner with her stomach? I mean, it could happen, sure, but she also had some old bruising around her abdomen and arms. The man who brought her in, her husband I guess, he also wouldn’t leave me alone with her for a second until I finally chased him out. I started asking some questions when we were alone, but she shut me down pretty quick and stuck to her story.”

The implication did not miss Melendez, possibly because after what he had seen, the possibility had already been niggling at the back of his mind. “You think she’s being abused.”

“I don’t have any proof,” Nguyen repeated. “But yeah. There’s something not right about the whole thing. And if you ask me? I think someone pushed her into that kitchen table on purpose, to cover up the marks from a fist.”

Melendez swore under his breath, and Nguyen gave him a commiserating look. “I know, but what can we do?” She shrugged. “I could report it, but there’s nothing definitive, and if she doesn’t want to leave, she won’t. You know that as well as I do.”

“Why the notes, then?” 

“I was hoping whoever caught her case would have better luck getting her to open up. She didn’t have any family members listed besides her husband, and if he’s the asshole who’s beating her up…” She trailed off, clearly frustrated at the situation.

“Thanks, Liz,” Melendez said, already making his way down the hall.

“That’s Elizabeth to you, young man!” she shouted after him, grinning as she said it. She saw a lot of abuse cases in her ER – women with bracelets of bruises around their arms, young men who were tight-lipped and kept repeating they had fallen, and children with haunted eyes. She made notes, pleaded with them, and did all she could for each of them, but after they left, her job ended until the next time they came in. She just hoped this one managed to get help.


End file.
